5 Shockingly Progressive Policies from Insane Dictatorships

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking in black-and-white terms about foreign countries. America is a free country, so we assume that all these repressive dictatorships must be like America in Opposite World, restricting every freedom they can get their hands on. But it's not that simple. We don't want to take away from the fact that a lot of these places are hellish nightmares, but some of them actually have (or had) policies even more progressive than those in the West. For example ...

#5. Weed Is Totally Legal in North Korea

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When your stoner friends complain about how tyrannical the government is for refusing to legalize marijuana, you may be tempted to point out that there are a lot of people in the world living under horrendous regimes so strict that questioning the government can get you executed by flamethrower. That's not a joke; that's something they actually do in North Korea. But then your friends might rightly point out that even in North Korea, weed is totally fine.

In a country where "human rights" is considered a strange foreign concept that goes against the spirit of the prosperity of Best Korea, getting hit by a flamethrower isn't the only way to get blazed. While most of the rest of the world is still wringing its hands over whether to make marijuana legal, the DPRK is ahead of the game, in that they never made it illegal to begin with: The North Korean government doesn't consider marijuana a drug and has never regulated its use. You might think this is because the country does not give an actual crap about the well-being of its people, so it doesn't regulate drugs whatsoever, but you'd be wrong: The government is extremely harsh on users of hard drugs like meth, for example.

Sergey Kamshylin/iStock/Getty ImagesReminder: This is a country that really has its shit together when it comes to the phrase "extremely harsh."

But weed is no more scarce or taboo than tobacco in North Korea -- in fact, the local name for it is "ip tambae," meaning "leaf tobacco." Growing hemp is also completely fine, with marijuana plants being cultivated along railroad tracks all over the country due to their extractable oils, which are used for industrial purposes, and their deep roots, which help hold the tracks.

Kevin Russ/iStock/Getty ImagesMeaning North Korea probably had the happiest hobo population in the world before they were all inevitably executed.

What about that super impressive military force that they like to remind us has its guns pointed at the USA, just itching for an excuse to strike? Apparently, smoking weed is a super popular pastime among the ranks of the North Korean military. It kind of blows away that frightening image of North Korean soldiers marching toward America when you picture them enveloped in a haze of suspiciously pungent smoke and laughing at their own uniforms.

#4. The Nazis Were Aggressively Pro-Animal Rights

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A high regard for the sanctity of life probably isn't the first thing you think about when it comes to Nazi Germany. It's safe to say that a regime that deliberately murdered over 13 million people probably didn't put compassion near the top of its list of priorities. If the Nazis treated people like that, how do you think they treated animals?

Nazi Germany had some of the strictest animal protection laws of its time for a group of people you probably assumed drowned cats for sport. In fact, one of the first things the Nazi party did when they got into power was pass a set of laws tightly regulating how animals are slaughtered for food and outright banning any form of cruel animal experimentation, such as vivisection. In fact, many of the animal protection laws that are still on the books in Germany today were originally put in place by Hermann Goering, Hitler's BFF and second in command.

While you'd probably assume that any law the Nazis passed was designed in some way to spite the Jews (and you'd be partly right -- Jewish kosher butchering was cited as part of their reasoning), the animal protection laws applied to everybody, even the very rich, and Hitler (a devout vegetarian) was fucking serious about it. Even hunting had to be carried out as morally as possible -- hunting on horseback and using hounds were both banned due to being considered unethical and a means of causing unnecessary suffering for the game. Never having hunted without these perks, the aristocracy became furious, but that didn't stop the Nazis from prohibiting them, a ban that remains in action today. Oh, and a biologist was once punished for not giving enough anesthesia to worms during an experiment.

popovaphoto/iStock/Getty Images"You monster! This is literally the worse atrocity ever committed by a German!"

There are a few theories about how the Nazis reconciled their animal protection policies with the fact that they were, you know, Nazis. Psychological studies of war criminals revealed that many of them were environmentalists to the point where they placed the lives of animals above the lives of humans (or at least certain races of humans). It kind of sheds a new light on the situation when you think of the Nazis as the extreme version of that hippie Facebook friend who keeps posting pictures of their cats and lamenting about how humans are shit.

#3. Rwanda Is the World Leader in Gender Equality

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If you know anything about Rwanda, the word "genocide" will likely turn up in your description, as well as a rant about how you need to put a vowel between the letters "R" and "W." But mostly the genocide thing. Back in the 1990s, Rwanda was one of the most violent places on Earth, and for the past couple of decades it's been ruled by a dictator, Paul Kagame, who has a funny way of making his political rivals disappear, while keeping a tight clamp on freedom of speech among his citizens. That's disappointing, because in terms of women's rights, Rwanda kind of shits on the rest of the world.

Rwanda's got so much gender equality, it's breaking (its own) world records for the highest proportion of women in office. In 2013, women won 64 percent of the seats in Rwanda's parliament. And they did so thanks to a voter turnout that would make Thomas Jefferson green with envy.

Rembrandt PealeAssuming that he could feel anything besides pure swagger under that fur collar.

For a country that was basically synonymous with all the problems that Africa has become known for, it has undergone a pretty incredible transformation. Two decades ago, lawlessness, rape, and murder were endemic, but today you'll find harsh penalties for rape, hotlines for victims, and widespread access to contraception. And businesses are following the example set by Rwanda's female-led parliament, ending years of entrenched discrimination. It's also the cleanest country in Africa. Plastic bags are outright illegal (it's a $150 fine if they catch you), street hawkers aren't allowed, and armies of government-employed cleaners work around the clock to make sure there's no litter messing up the public spaces.

Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty ImagesIn fairness, it's easy to remember to stay tidy when half your trash is the remains of political dissidents.

And in case you assume that this is all just the happy mask they're using to cover up some really shady underground, it turns out that daily life in Rwanda is more or less as peaceful as it appears. Crime is low and police corruption is minimal, which is surprising for a country ruled by a guy who suspiciously gets over 90 percent of the vote each election.